What Are an Attorney's Billable Hours?
Billable hours for an attorney are calculated to accurately reflect the time spent by the attorney on a given matter for a client. Each hour of the working day for an attorney is divided into six-minute sections that must be accounted for and recorded to allow the law firm to accurately bill a client for the time spent working on the clients issues.
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History
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The history of billable hours for attorneys can be traced to 1914 with the introduction of Raymond Heber Smith as the head of the Boston Legal Aid Society. Along with the Harvard Business School, Smith established a system for each attorney to record their daily activities on time sheets to increase efficiency. Prior to the introduction of billable hours, the services offered by attorneys were rewarded by their overall value to each client, or by flat fees governed by a state bar association.
Hours
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Billable hours are a reflection of the services completed by an attorney for a set amount of money charged for each hour worked. Each attorney working for a law firm charges clients at a set hourly rate for the work they complete. Typically, attorneys can raise their billable hour rate for each year of experience.
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Minimum
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The majority of law firms require their attorneys to meet a minimum number of billable hours per year, usually in the range of 1,700 to 2,400 hours per year. While working a 10-hour office day, an attorney is available for around 7.5 billable hours per day, according to the University of Nevada---Las Vegas. Each business day, an attorney will complete other tasks, including lunch breaks, attending meetings and reading law journals that are not billable. Companies require billable hour minimums to be met by attorneys in an attempt to cover overheads, which include salaries, benefits and office space costs.
Problems
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Not all law firms require their employees to meet billable hour minimums; small law firms and those acting in the public interest often do not have minimum billable hours. Large minimum billable hour quotas that must be met by attorneys bring the temptation to pad or mislead clients over the number of hours worked. Services including photocopying are often used as billable hours to increase the number of hours an attorney has worked. The use of billable hours can also reward an attorney who works slowly and does not take advantage of technological advances to speed up the legal process.
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References
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